Neon Flames
by DevinTowerwood
Summary: Following their doubles match, Neon asks Yang out on a date. This fills in key moments between the two between episodes 5 and 12 in season 3, and may be continued into later seasons, if reason permits. Canon compliant.
1. A Totally Platonic Date

Weiss coughed a few times, trying to clear the ash from her mouth, her lungs.

"I don't think I'll be singing for a while," she rasped, throat totally destroyed.

After a second, Blake began to giggle, raising the back of her hand up over her mouth to hold it back. Yang broke a smile, too, crouched somewhere over Weiss's head, though her eyes were more fixed on Blake.

Yang mussed with Weiss's hair, thoroughly coating her own hand in the black powder that would inevitably stain everything. "Of course that's your first priority. We couldn't let the dorms go a week without hearing your shower singing, huh?"

"Well I think that's a real bummer," Ruby defended, looking eagerly to Weiss for some sign of approval. With her aura dropped, though, Weiss seemed a little too out of it to notice that Ruby was, in her own way, defending her.

Yang stood up when she noticed the medics had arrived to pull Weiss from the stadium. Beyond them, team FNKI were hugging and congratulating each other, but, despite being in an embrace, the girl with the funky hair's eyes were over on team RWBY, a wide, sly smile on her face.

"Oh! Weiss, the medics are here," Ruby announced, as if Weiss could not see that plainly enough for herself. Ruby scooped her arms under her fallen companion and rose up, cradling Weiss in her arms despite being, well, much smaller than Weiss. From how steadily and quickly she did it, Yang figured she must be expending aura just to do it.

"Oh, please, don't . . . do that," one of the medics said, but Ruby seemed to ignore them, laying Weiss down on a stretcher. "We're professionals, please let us handle it."

"Totally," Ruby said with a huge grin, unaware of the point. When one of them gave her a weird look, she pointed at them both and said, "And you're doing a great job! Thanks guys!"

Blake cradled her head with her palm, shaking away her secondhand embarrassment from her team leader. Yang, though, grinned appreciatively. Ruby may miss the point 90% of the time, but she didn't fail to misinterpret productively. And, well, Yang loved that.

Almost as soon as they were off the stadium and the official intermission between matches began, a streak of light blazed from the other side of the stadium. Ruby and Blake didn't seem to catch it, but Yang had just been keeping her eye on that rainbow streak for the past five minutes, and paused on the path while Ruby went to go find food.

"Hey, Yang, you coming?" Ruby called, though only in response to Blake stopping and turning to look first.

"Yeah, I'll catch up with you in just a sec. Get me, uh, a hot dog," Yang said as she turned, waving her sister and teammate away.

The grinding of boots against pavement told Yang that her sister was saluting somewhere behind her. "Can do!" She said, and then Yang got a little too lost in the meandering crowd to hear anything more from her.

Yang's hunch was quickly confirmed as the streak ended about ten feet in front of her, and Neon canceled her semblance to skate the last few feet towards Yang at a more reasonable speed. She neatly dodged a young faunis boy, then skated a little past Yang.

"Hey girlie!" She called, quickly turning to loop around Yang and pull up in front of her. She really did wear those roller blades all the time, huh?

"Hey Neon," Yang greeted, placing her hands on her hips. Apparently, the constant, glowing smile wasn't just part of her infuriate-the-enemy tactic, as she quickly plastered it on at being acknowledged by name. "What can I do you for?"

"Okay, so, one," she held up a finger to indicate that there would be a list, shuffling her skates back and forth without actually moving anywhere. "When I said 'we' should party sometime, I'd like to clarify that that was for you. Schnee seems cool and all, but like, a little uptight. You seem fun."

Yang smirked, but just raised her eyebrows, waiting for #2.

Neon held up another finger quickly. "Two." She reached into her back pocket and retrieved a hastily torn piece of paper, offering it to Yang. "This is my number for when you want to hang. You kicked my ass, so I'll have a little more free time while we're here."

Yang plucked the paper from between Neon's fingers, and, somehow, the girl managed to grin wider.

"Cool," she said, and then started to wiggle a little to back up, apparently ready to start her sprint away again.

Yang didn't lower her hand after taking the piece of paper, instead using the hand to shrug lop-sidedly. "Why don't we hang tonight? I've got time."

Neon looked intrigued, but shot a glance at the center of the stadium. "You sure? These things go pretty late."

"Pah," Yang waved away the thought. "Trust me, the place I've got in mind's open late. Where are you staying? I'll pick you up, say, nine?"

"Wow," Neon exclaimed, a little sarcastically. "It's . . . dodgy. I like it."

She placed her hands on Yang's hips and pushed herself off the bike, handing the helmet over to Yang.

Yang rolled her eyes, just leaving her helmet on top of her bike. Anywhere else, and she'd be afraid of it getting stolen, but anyone around here would quickly find themselves answering to her. "It's not that bad inside, trust me. Think of it as a trade-off between location and interior quality."

"Works for me," Neon said, accompanying Yang towards the large doors.

It was weird to see how her whole body bobbed slightly as she walked, especially with how short she was without her skates. Her hair would bounce with every step, and she was so small Yang was tempted to just drop her hand into the thick mess, but she didn't want to be 'that guy.'

The bouncers inside the door immediately flinched upon seeing Yang, but she was quick to snap her fingers into little finger guns. "Don't worry guys, not here for Junior. Here for the scene and a strawberry sunrise, promise."

One of the guys sighed loudly, as if trying to make himself heard over the music. "We don't want any trouble, blondie."

Yang smiled broadly. "And neither do I. Just here on a 'hang'."

He gave a pointed look at her wrists. "You're wearing those gauntlets"

She thumbs-upped in response. "Just in case."

He rolled his eyes, but made no more protest, so Yang grabbed Neon's arm and dragged her across the floor towards the bar.

Neon shot a glance back at the bouncers as they skirted around the people on the dance floor, then took several quick steps to pull up next to Yang. "Jeeze, what did you do to those guys?"

Yang took a seat at the bar, glad to see the bartender immediately deflate upon seeing Yang. She shot him a smile, but turned to Neon. "Well, I kicked their asses too. It's a hobby, really." She shot a quick look over to the bartender, "Strawberry sunrise, please. And, ah, whatever she wants."

Yang had barely gotten the words out before the drink slid into her hands, and Neon just landed a very impressed glance on her. She gave her order quickly while Yang took her first drink.

"Well, that's pretty hot."

Yang immediately choked on her drink, totally ruining her cool. She tried to wipe her cheek, but essentially ended up smearing it with Ember Celica. She ended up having to dab her mouth against her shoulder, which only led to Neon laughing entirely at her expense.

"Relax," she crooned, shoving Yang a little bit before turning to retrieve her drink. "I dish out compliments a lot - I'd prefer you didn't asphyxiate by the end of the date."

Yang was so used to controlling the tempo of a conversation that she was caught totally off-guard. She was left leaning against her own hand, elbow on the table, giving Neon a long, incredulous glance. "Are you always this forward?" she asked.

Neon did not appear to be paying attention, though, instead trying to catch the bartender's attention. "Hey, yeah, um, can I get a straw? Thanks."

When her her eyes turned back to Yang, though, the question clearly wasn't lost, as she replied, "Oh, yeah, definitely. I can't stand being evasive. Total time-waster and mood-killer."

When she got her straw, she quickly peeled it and stuck it in her drink. The way her cheeks pulled in and her eyes popped looked silly enough that Yang chuckled, though she looked away in general embarrassment.

"You're sure hard to hit for someone who can't be evasive." Yang took another drink, steeling herself in case she got hit from the side again with another comment.

Neon shrugged. "Nah, that was just me trying to grab your ass."

Yeah, like _that_ sort of comment.

Yang just pursed her lips and focused on swallowing, glad that it wasn't the sort of drink that burned if you let it sit for a moment.

Yang tried to be cool this time around, and shot back, "Well, good tactic. It _almost_ worked."

Neon seemed to take this in the most positive way possible, again smiling before taking a drink. When she was done, though, she replied, "Yeah, almost. Next time, though, your ass is mine."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Don't think there's going to be another Vytal festival while we're still in school."

"I wasn't talking about a fight." And she just took another drink.

If Yang got any redder, she was afraid she might burst into flames. Literally. And she'd prefer not to eat through the rest of her aura today.

She could play this game, too, though. "Oh? So you're firmly a butt girl, then?"

Neon shrugged. "Firmly, softly - any type works for me, really."

And Yang did not have a great comeback for that.

She just aimed a side eye over to Neon, who picked up on it quickly.

"So are you just trying to screw me or . . . what?" While Neon was much, much smoother than guys who normally hit on her in places like this, she still was getting too-forward vibes. It was leaving her a little antsy about the whole date.

"Oh, don't worry," Neon said, pushing her empty glass forward. "I'm just not pretending I'm not interested. It's like getting to know me really, really fast. But, like, I'm not going to try and do anything you're not totally on board with."

Yang quirked up an eyebrow. She really didn't know what to make of Neon - everything about her screamed expression, and yet she couldn't get a good read on who she was. It wasn't like Blake or Ruby, keeping up a facade so people wouldn't see what was going on inside. Yang was pretty sure she was getting the real Neon package here, but no idea what to do with it.

"Thanks I guess?"

Neon turned to face Yang directly. "I mean, it's like this. I'm up against this totally cute girl - girl?" She offered a hand towards Yang as she said 'girl the second time', and it took Yang a few seconds to understand what she meant.

"Oh, um, maybe. I'll let you know." Yang felt a surge of appreciation for the consideration, but before she could voice it, Neon was still on her way.

"Okay, so, totally cute person, and they're buff and they've got great hair and just sick gauntlets, right? And then, like, they've got this whole unbridled rage thing apparently so hard-wired into them that it's their semblance, and they totally kick my ass because of it. And I'm like, wow, that sucks, I lost, but also, I'm interested. Hair? Check. Muscles? Check. Rage? I can totally work with that, check."

Yang ran a hand through her hair, a little abashed. She never really thought of her semblance that way, and she definitely didn't try to dissect other people's. Semblances, outside of a combat setting, were usually taken as a deeply personal and revealing thing, a manifestation of their soul in its rawest form. Although so few people had them, so she couldn't exactly say it was against social custom to bring them up, it felt a little exposed.

"So I'm . . . your type?" Yang's eyes were somewhere near Neon's knees, but she quickly felt like she was ogling and pulled them back up to her eyes.

"Basically," Neon replied, grabbing her refreshed drink and sipping on the straw. "Plus, I really wanna ask about your semblance. I know it's a bit much for a first date but like, there's a story there, and I'm not gonna get you until I hear it."

Neon's interest was a little too much for Yang, and it left her with a bit of a frown on her face. Neon seemed to read that quickly, though, and reached out to settle a hand on her knee. "Hey, look," she said, "you don't gotta tell me. I'm just letting you know, I'm interested, and not just about your body or whatever. You . . ." she seemed to be fishing for the right word, "intrigue me."

Yang shifted a little bit, but she didn't try to get rid of Neon's hand. Despite the fact that the girl left her a little on edge, her touch was actually . . . surprisingly comforting. "And you flatter me. How do you keep it up?"

Neon shot her a dazzling smile. "I'm unabashedly me. You should try it sometime."

Yang thought that that was admirable. Neon had certainly not been what she was expecting when Yang had discovered their doubles round would be against an Atlas team. Atlas, in her mind, was all about conformity, rigidity, precision. But here was this bright, energetic faunis girl. Being so proud of who you were in that sort of context was . . . well, it was pretty amazing.

And Yang felt the first tug of attraction to the tiny girl across from her.

"Yeah . . . I try," Yang admitted quietly, then turned back to finish her sunrise.

Yang's scroll vibrated a few seconds later, and she checked it quickly. A notification from Blake read:

 **Blake =3:** Still out on your totally-not-a-date?

Yang cracked a smile at that, though quickly drawn away from the message as Neon suddenly deflated.

"Oh," Neon said glumly, a totally new tone for her.

"Huh?" Yang asked. "What's up?"

She hoped she hadn't annoyed her by looking at her scroll.

"You already have someone," Neon said.

Yang tried to ignore how her tail drooped along with her shoulders.

"I . . . what do you mean?" Yang asked, cocking her head to the side. Every little motion of her head sent her hair spilling everywhere, but she was so used to it that it didn't bother her (only the bartender).

Neon pointed up at Yang's face, immediately leaving her a little self-conscious. "That look. That's a special look. Family member or girlfriend. Boyfriend? Theyfriend? Whatever: was it a family member?"

Yang shook her head, more confused at what Neon was trying to say than the words themselves. "No, it was just my teammate."

This did not seem to comfort her. "Your teammate who you're in love with, though. I didn't know."

What in the world was she going on about now? "I'm . . . not in love with Blake."

Neon seemed less than impressive with this statement. "Right. Well, some faunis can see through the dark or whatever, but I can see right through girls - or, uh, _people_ \- in love. It's like a twinkle, trust me."

Yang wanted to protest further, but she could see that the conversation was quickly frustrating Neon, and it wasn't making her feel much better. Still, she didn't want to sour their hang-out over one little look at her scroll.

Yang turned in her seat towards the dance floor. "Look, hey, we're in a club, right? We're young, we're hot, we can kick everyone in here's asses, let's just dance, all right?"

And, like Yang had dropped a spark on fire Dust, a grin ignited on Neon's face, and her whole body (tail included) perked up.  
"Now we're talking!" she remarked with glee, and quickly (well, as quickly as a straw allows) downed the rest of her drink. Then she grabbed Yang's arm and pulled her standing with her.

As they made their way to the dance floor, Neon made a little jab for Yang's ribs with her elbow, though Yang carefully sidestepped it. "Just so you know, though, even if you're all over Blake, I'm still going to ask to kiss you sometime tonight."

Yang groaned, tossing her hair back as she looked up at the club's disco ball. "Goodness, you're like a dog with a bone."  
She and Neon exchanged a small glance as Yang realized what she said, but Neon's wry smile let her know it would slide. This time.

"And you're like, a really attractive person with great cheek bones. I wanna smooch a babe, sue me."

Yang huffed, but now they were on the dance floor, and more important things were at hand. "Well, I'll let you know what I think about that by the end of tonight."

"I'm looking forward to it," Neon replied, beaming.  
"Now, let's dance!"

It was 12:23 when Yang and Neon returned to Beacon Academy, walking Bumblebee through the campus to avoid irritating everyone in the dorms. While Yang had originally anticipated the overflow of students here for the festival would make everyone stay up and out later, the looming presence of the Atlas ships left you with the pervading sense that you were being watched.

Yang wondered if it was always like this in Atlas. Did security bots wander the streets at night? Did an attachment of ships constantly hover over the school, a warning that no Grim could understand?

Ever since the incident with the train, Yang was glad for the military's presence. But it had only left this vague threat in the air: some people would like to see this place burn. Pro-faunis or not, the White Fang had aimed to attack civilians, faunis and human alike.

Yang sighed. She had hoped the tournament would cast her hanging doubts away, but when she wasn't fighting or training, they yet remained. Ruby and Weiss seemed to have moved on quickly, but Yang could still see a tension in Blake, though she'd been resting more and finishing her food.

"Hmm? You all right?" Neon asked, cocking her head to the side. Bumblebee sat between her and Yang, and the distance had left her a little more quiet.

Yang shrugged, but made a point to look over and smile. "Oh, yeah. I was just thinking about how much easier this walk would be with roller skates."

That put a smile on Neon's face. She walked with her hands in her pockets, but there was a little more pep in her step immediately. "Every walk is easier with roller skates, once you get good enough. Cobblestone's terrible, but I barely even notice with my semblance."

Neon's comments about Yang's semblance, even if they'd been rude, had made Yang wonder what could result in a semblance like hers. It was so flashy. Had Neon really just been born like this, born for pastel tattoos and roller skates?  
"So, I have to ask, how did you come up with your fighting style? I mean, until I met Sun, I thought nunchaku were pretty ridiculous. But the roller skates, the dust, where'd that all come from?"

Neon started laughing as soon as Yang brought up the nunchaku, but waited for her to finish before going in. "Well, basically, I was the worst when I got into the academy. I don't even know how I got in; I hadn't discovered my semblance, and while I'm pretty good with nunchucks, I couldn't spar for crap."

Yang just raised her eyebrows, surprised to hear Neon confess to having been bad at anything, ever. After dancing with her, Yang had been pretty convinced that she might not _actually_ be bad at anything.

Neon seemed to read the look, "No, yeah, I wasn't agile, I couldn't get through anyone's aura, and like hell could I ring anyone out. And I was pissed, thought I'd flunk before I even got to fight a Grim. My team was cool, and all, but I was a total drag on them, even when Flynt made me the weapons I use now."

Yang's eyes turned forward along their path, trying not to make her pity visible. Yang knew she had joined an exceptional team ever since she was assigned, but she hadn't felt like a drag. After being chosen for the doubles round, she could be pretty sure no one else - the group had chosen her unanimously to be the person to go into the singles. It was like talking to a girl Jaune, only improved on almost all fronts.

"So, what changed?"

Neon gave a shrug way more casual and dismissive than normal, and said as if it were no more than a tack-on, "Joined a roller derby to let off steam, unlocked my semblance, and immediately got banned."

Yang blinked. "Just like that?"  
And Neon nodded in reply. "Just like that."

But then, a grin broke out on her face. "But, like, I didn't tell anyone at first, especially seeing as I had so much trouble getting it to work without skates. Flynt found out why I got banned, though, and he made me some special shoes with wheels in them. I used them during a sparring match and _stomped_ the dude I was sparring against. Never knew what hit him."

Yang snorted, as the image she had of Neon was suddenly restored. "Yeah? And when did you develop taunting as a battle tactic?"

Neon made a little show of pointing finger guns over at Yang, then cocking them as if she were pumping a shot gun (which fairly prompted a giggle), and said, "Nah, hun, that bit's just for you. You're hard to resist."

Yang rolled her eyes, just as they made it to the parking lot for student vehicles, which was really just an extension of the airfield near the dorms.  
"Good to know I'm so 'top heavy' that it makes me a target even in battle. I was really hoping that was a bar-specific sort of thing, but no; maybe even the Grim will eat me for it."

Neon pulled her hands out of her pockets and placed them on her hips, allowing a short beat before finally replying, rather quietly, "Well, if I were a Grim, I'd definitely eat you."

Yang pursed her lips, but wasn't sure how to respond without trapping herself again.

Yang decided to walk Neon all the way back to her team's quarters under the firm logic that 'she knows the campus better' and 'she has shotguns on her arms'. However, Neon had one final counterargument: they would have to take the stairs. Yang didn't really mind, but they had only gone up a few flights before she thought to ask:  
"Wait, why exactly didn't we take the elevator?"

Neon was already on the next landing that Yang was making her way to, but she paused and turned back at this question. "Because it's a steel box of death, that's why," and then she continued up the next flight before Yang could quite catch up.

"You . . . don't like elevators?" Yang asked, quickly starting to not dig the stairs. If she weren't worried about the destruction of school property, she could probably launch herself upwards floor-by-floor, but these steps were just so annoying.

Neon's next response was a whole flight ahead; "Can't say I'm a fan!"

And Yang decided not to press it, instead deciding to pick up her pace and catch up to Neon. How did this girl have so much energy? She had fought that afternoon, danced for about two hours that night, and still her tiny legs shot her up these stairs? _How?_

Neon was leaning against the door onto (apparently) her room's floor by the time Yang arrived, embarrassingly out of breath from her attempts to catch Neon. The way Neon's massive, bright-red hair spread against anything she leaned against looked like huge ears, though, and Yang's panting quickly turned to laughter.

Although she couldn't possibly know what Yang was laughing about, Neon folded her arms and scowled. "Hey," she said, her tone scolding in a way it had never been before, "you're ruining my suave moment."

"Oh?" Yang stood up straight, patting her jacket smooth as part of regaining her composure.

"Yeah," Neon replied, turning her head to the side. It took Yang a few seconds to realize that her offense was facetious.  
Neon slid Yang a side-eye. "I was going to ask you to kiss me. But first, you totally missed our race to the top, and then you come here and laugh at me while I was trying to give you _the face_."

"Hmm?" Yang leaned forward, her hands on her hips. "The face?" She wasn't sure how else to evade the pseudo-question.

Neon nodded, turning her forwards. "Yeah, _the face_. The kiss-me face. It's like this," she said, taking a few seconds to close her eyes, relax her face, then open her eyes very slowly, giving her a heavy-lidded look that set her eyelashes over her eyes. After a second she inhaled deeply, her lips parting while her chest expanding pushed her body slightly up the wall.

Yang immediately got what she meant about 'the face', but she wasn't going to be so easily drawn in. She just blinked, clearing her thoughts and impulses, and replied, "It looks sort of like your 'I'm going to punch you' face."

And, without missing a beat, Neon pushed off the wall, planted her feet, and slugged Yang in the shoulder.

Neon's eyes popped open, and she pursed her lips in intense contrast to the expression she'd just been making. "Good read," she said, and leaned back against the door, this time pushing it open.

Yang felt a twinge of guilt, but at the same time, she knew she wasn't ready. She had kissed enough people at Signal to know that it could be meaningless, but there was a part of her that _wanted_ to like this girl, and she wasn't going to spoil it for herself.

Before Yang even managed to make it back to her dorm, a new message appeared on her scroll.

 **Neon =^.^=:** i'm asking you out tomorrow, btw **Yang:** As in tomorrow you're asking me out, or you're asking me out now for tomorrow? **Neon =^.^=:** yes

Yang rolled her eyes at that, but she couldn't pretend that, well, it was really, really cute. She wasn't sure whether it was Neon herself, or just her unflagging interest, but something was getting to her.

 **Yang:** Sure

Neon's last replies didn't come until Yang was in the bathroom, in her pajamas with her scroll on the sink.

 **Neon =^.^=:** amazing. you're adapting to the turbulence of high-speed bonding with remarkable ease.  
 **Neon =^.^=:** i'll see you after the matches tomorrow. you can take me downtown!

And although she hadn't expected it, Yang liked that idea very much.

 **Yang:** You would be amazed what I can adapt to - and I look forward to it :) 


	2. Rainbow Streaks and Roller Skates

There was a rule in RWBY dorm: don't set any alarms. Ruby is your alarm. If not Ruby, Weiss's loud insistence that Ruby leave her alone so that she can go back to bed would be your alarm. That morning, though, Weiss was gone, which left Yang with only one option:  
Being shaken awake by tiny, tiny hands on her shoulders.

"Yang? Yang! Get up!"

"Ruby?" Yang had enough experience with this to not freak out - which was good, because these moments used to result in Ruby getting launched into the ceiling with only her aura keeping her nose intact. Instead, she opened her eyes just enough to confirm that, yes, her pajama-clad sister was looming about a foot over her, her hair wet from a recent shower.  
Yang's eyes slid over towards the window, and discovered just enough light filtering in to confirm that dawn had come. Ruby had been having nightmares again.

"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" Yang groaned, sinking her head forcefully down into her pillow. She'd been asleep for maybe five hours. She was not ready to get up.

Ruby refused to take the hint, as always. She plopped down on the bed, drawing the covers so tight over Yang that she scooted over, trying to free up more space to wrap herself in. To show how serious she was about falling back asleep, she flipped around, burrowing her face into the pillow now.  
Ruby wasn't fazed. "You have to tell me about your date! I was asleep when you got back; what happened?"

Yang let out a nasal grumble, muffled through it might be. She wondered if her irritation could cause enough flame to get Ruby off of her bed. If Blake weren't sleeping on the bunk above, Yang might give it a try.  
Yang gave up completely when she heard the huff of Zwei jumping up onto her bunk, though, the tiny depressions of his paws alerting her just seconds before he climbed onto her back. He didn't even find it a decent resting spot - he just wanting to paw around like a jerk.

Yang was awake, and there was nothing she could do about it. She cocked her head to the side, leaving her face mostly enshrouded in her hair but giving her some more room to breathe.

"I told you last night. We went dancing, then we came right back."

"That's not what I meeeaaannn," Ruby said, poking her sister's cheek through the veil of hair. Maidens, it was like living with a toddler. "I mean, how was Neon? Was she cool? What did she wear? Is she a good dancer? What do her tattoos mean? Do you like her? Does she like you? Are you-"

"Ruby," Yang interjected, raising her hand slightly. "My turn."

Ruby offered out her hands, ceding the conversation.

Yang sighed, trying to more accurately recollect her thoughts. What came to mind about Neon?  
 _She was a bad fighter._  
 _We're going out again._  
 _That face._

"Yeah, uh, Neon's cool. We're hanging out again today. She's like, super forward. But, I don't know. She's cool."

"Forward?" Ruby asked, clearly confused. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, she asked, "Ooo did you guys kiss? _Huh_?" She poked Yang again on 'huh', but Yang's hand shot up and smacked the probe away. Probably a little harder than necessary.

"No," Yang replied, defensive. This conversation was clearly getting the better of her. She didn't like it.

Yang pulled up a little, prompting Zwei to bail from her back to her bed, which was now incredibly crowded for surface space. Yang drew up her legs and sat up, leaning against the wall. She wiped at her face, feeling smudged from planting her face in the pillow, even if she hadn't slept with makeup or anything to actually get smudged.  
Ruby was pouting. Clearly, she'd wanted tales of a far more adventurous, romantic, or at the very least irresponsible night. It's not like previous experience with Yang hadn't taught her to expect that very thing - it's just that, usually, Yang was the one pushing these things along. Now here she was, being pursued straight out of the gate, and it left her uneasy, cautious. Not her.  
But still . . . she was already looking forward to that second date.

"Well?" Ruby started, face expectant. "You're hanging out again - do you like her?"

Yang's leg was propped up against her chest, and she lowered her face down onto her knee. "I don't even know her," she replied. It wasn't really an answer, even if it was the truth.

"Well, the Vytal festival's going to end soon . . . you should get on that." Ruby blinked, realizing something; "I guess you are."

Yang's lips pursed, serving only to smoosh her face worse, what with her cheek puffed out on her knee. "But, like. If she's about to go back to Atlas, what's the point?"

Ruby gave a full-body shrug. "I mean, it's never a bad time to fall in love."

Yang rolled her eyes, then raised a fist to her crown, extending a finger in the air as if she were trying to imitate Blake's ears. "One, Ruby, what do you know about love? And two, have you brushed your teeth yet? Your breath stinks."

Ruby flushed red with the readiness that only her sister seemed to possess. "I, uh . . . nothing. I mean, I watch movies and stuff and . . ."  
Ruby was rapidly becoming overwhelmed by this first question, and Yang was yet again struck with how adorably hopeless she was. Ruby was going to have to learn how to hide her feelings a bit better one of these days, or else someone other than Yang might catch a peek at them.

Yang leaned forward and shoved her sister's shoulder, almost forcing her off the bed entirely. "You. Go. Brush your teeth. Let me get up and shower if I have to be awake."

"Ugh," Ruby whined, though she stood immediately. "Fine." She grabbed her bathroom stuff and made her way to the door, opening it up before turning back towards Yang. "But I'm still going to bug you later!"

"You always do!" Yang replied, waving her sister away dismissively before she closed the door behind her.

Yang planted her feet on the floor, sighing into the fresh silence. She felt the fight from yesterday even more than she had last night, and combined with the dancing and lack of sleep, her body ached. Physical training had long since stopped leaving her with any pain, but the fire that boiled her blood, the frantic pumping in her heart, the surging, synergistic wave of her body and soul becoming one - that, that never stopped hurting. The singles round would begin tomorrow. She hoped she wouldn't be competing - she didn't want this heavy feeling going into another fight. It was going to be tough enough to manage on her date.

She stood and grabbed her toiletries as well, making her way to the door. A shower would help ease the ache, she was sure of it.

She stopped in her tracks, feeling eyes on her back. She pivoted slowly, and saw Blake's bright amber eyes on her. She was curled up, her blanket still over her, her head just cocked to the side from her pillow, but her eyes were wide open. She didn't say anything immediately, so Yang thought she might just be waking up.

"Hey," Yang greeted softly.

It was a few seconds before Blake replied, but it was much higher and neater than it would be if she'd just gotten up: "Did you have fun?"

Yang shrugged. "I mean, yeah."

Blake blinked slowly, but her ears twitched underneath her bow. Then she replied, "That's good."

"Yeah."

Weiss was kind enough to grace everyone with her presence a little after breakfast. She was a lot like Ren, constantly getting migraines after fights and sleeping as much as possible. Normally, she'd just swallow some pills and try to pretend it wasn't happening. This time around, though she just opened the door with an exhausted sigh, didn't respond to anyone's 'hey's, and dropped into her bed. Total aura depletion would do that to a person.

After a few seconds, though, Ruby was not so content to be totally ignored.  
"Weeeiiiissss?" she asked hanging down from her top bunk.

Weiss only groaned in response.

"Are you going to the fights today?"

"No," she replied, straight into sounding exasperated. Despite the fact that it couldn't be doing anything for her comfort, Weiss still had her hair up in a tight ponytail, although she was still in the pajamas the gang had brought her yesterday. Apparently, even being ill left her with standards.

"Just going to nap today?" Yang asked. They still didn't need to leave for another thirty minutes for a ferry, even if they were looking to get good seats, but Yang had been sitting and brushing her hair for the last ten minutes. Getting any more ready than that would leave her feeling like she had to leave immediately, but she was couldn't settle down enough to just chill out and play video games or something. Even though she wasn't fighting today, nervousness was bubbling inside her.

"Yes."

"Can't you just like, use your time dilation and just skip your way through a nap and go with us?" Yang wasn't quite certain why she wanted Weiss to go so much, and from the look Ruby was giving her, she wasn't certain either.

"That's literally not how anything works."  
Weiss turned her head towards the center of the room, catching Yang, Zwei, and assumedly Blake in the look.  
"Who's even up today? I didn't hear who went after us."

Yang shrugged, but Blake was always much better when it came to details: "Team SSSN went yesterday, and so did Emerald's team. Team . . ."

There was a short pause, but Yang quickly felt the same weirdness as Blake. What was her team name? There was Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, and . . . who was the fourth girl? She never hung out with them.  
"I, uh, I don't think we ever learned their team name, actually," Yang offered after a few seconds.

"Well, team JNPR's up today. Jaune and the others came over for video games while Yang was out last night - Pyrrha and Nora are fighting today. It should be a sweep." Blake sounded bored, disappointed. She must have been hoping for a less surefire team. Then again, anyone + Pyrrha . . . how close could a fight even get?

"That sounds . . ." Weiss struggled to find the right word for a moment, then, "Actually, that sounds awesome. I'll try and stream it."

"We'll get out of your hair," Yang said, planting her hands on her bed to practically fling herself off of it. "Try and get some sleep."

Blake plopped down to the floor and was quick to follow, but when Yang opened the door, she turned back to the interior of the room. "C'mon, Ruby, that means you too."

"Egh, fine, all right, just let me get my shoes on."

It was a sweep.  
When Yang found out she had chosen to advance into the singles, she'd started reviewing the matchups from previous days of the tournament. She had seen the fight with Emerald's team in the Teams matchup. It had been a slaughterhouse, humble though she might have tried to play it. And this? Pyrrha and Nora versus two kids from Mistral? This was over even faster.

Blake, Yang, and Ruby were quick to get out of their seats to go congratulate them, but they weren't quite quick enough. Almost as soon as that final matchup was decided and RWBY were out of their seats, Blake tapped on Yang's shoulder.

"I think your second date is about to start," she said, pointing across the battlegrounds.

Yang quickly noticed what she meant. Neon's rainbow blur was making its way around the arena, and it was going to make it here much quicker than they'd be able to make it over to JNPR. Yang stopped in her tracks, a little amazed at the tiny zigzags she was making, dodging people that Yang couldn't even see as distinct entities at this distance.

Then Ruby, the only one to have made it to the stairs yet, suddenly gasped. She turned around, nearly blocking Yang and Blake as they squeezed by people at their seats.  
"Wait!" She exclaimed, "Does this mean we get to meet Neon! I really want to meet Neon, please tell me we can-"

But Blake grabbed Ruby's wrist as she passed her, dragging her down the steps ahead of Yang.  
"Come on, Ruby, let's go say hi to Pyrrha and Nora."

"But I-"  
"Bye Yang! See you tonight."

Blake turned as she neared the bottom of the steps, waving to Yang. Yang smirked and waved back.  
"See ya!" She called, and made her way down the steps, waiting to greet Neon down on the sidewalk.

Yang had a whole gag ready. She knew Neon would reach her before she could pull off anything too clever, but she was at least able to cross her legs and look really, really bored, as if Neon had been keeping her waiting. She'd show up and they'd have a laugh about Neon being tardy. Ha ha.  
No. Because of course not. As Neon zoomed closer, Yang smirked, standing up straighter to start.

"Took you long e-" but Neon wasn't stopping. Instead, she was hurtling straight towards Yang, a rainbow blur with her arms outstretched in front of her, something in her hands offered forward. Yang didn't even have time to see what - only thanks to the years of practice dealing with projectiles did she even manage to pivot, grabbing the sides of Neon's hands. The momentum as Neon left her semblance was far, far too much, though, and Yang toppled right over, her grasp on Neon only serving to pull her forward.  
If Neon had been going much, much slower, they might have just awkwardly tumbled onto each other. Instead, Neon screeched as she was flung over Yang, properly belly-flopping onto the pavement. Luckily, she didn't crush anyone on her way down, as people seemed eager to avoid the rainbow streak, but now both Neon and Yang were sprawled out in the middle of the walkway.

"Oww, oww," Neon moaned, picking herself up.  
Meanwhile, Yang rolled over, thoroughly convinced that she was concussed if not actively dying at this moment. Was she bleeding? Maybe? Her scalp was super warm for sure, but that could just be pain instead of blood.

"Why," Yang asked, not yet able to pick herself up, "why didn't you stop?" Everything in her vision was pulsing. Was it supposed to be doing that? Was the sun pulsing? It probably wasn't intended to do that.

"I thought you would stop me!" Neon whined, pushing herself up just enough to sit cross-legged beside Yang, who was still working on that "having functional limbs" thing. "You're really strong - I just thought I'd stop in my tracks or you'd lift me and it'd be cute."

At this point, people on the cement had realized that this accident involved two cute girls, and Neon started to shoo them away. It was even worse when they realized that they were tournament participants, but Neon just cradled her scraped face in her hand and told one of the random strangers, "Dude, I'm gay, leave me alone," as if that were more important than her healing factor.

Yang finally managed to get enough feeling back to push herself up to her feet. She immediately stumbled, but caught herself, lifting her arms higher when somebody tried to grasp her upper arms to support her. "I'm strong because of my aura, and I don't just - are those roller skates?"

Neon looked around, initially confused at the question until she realized that her hands were empty. She finally caught sight of a pair of roller blades a few feet off to her side, then quickly scrambled to her feet to go and retrieve them.  
"Dammit! Yeah!"

Maybe it was because the physical manifestation of her soul wasn't busy fixing all the damage done to her brain yet, but this left Yang so confused that she didn't even move from the spot she was in - including leaving her arms raised above her head to keep anyone from touching them.  
"Why do you need a second pair of -" and then it clicked, and Yang lowered her arms as well; "Oh."

Neon rolled back on over to Yang, much more slowly this time, offering out the skates again. "They're for you."

There were a few questions that rolled through Yang's mind. A really great one was: you're taking me roller skating? But such a reasonable, well-paced question is not what escaped her mouth. Instead they were just left with, "How did you get the right size . . .?" because, on brief inspection, they were the perfect size, assuming roller skates followed ordinary shoe sizes.

Yang was immediately embarrassed by the question she actually managed to vocalize. What she hadn't been expecting was that finally, finally, Neon looked a little embarrassed herself, her face turning down to avoid Yang's eyes.  
"Aha, well, so," she said, briefly stalling while offering the skates again.  
Yang took them, and Neon continued, "Flynt stopped by to see Schnee yesterday - I think that whole geyser trick really won him over yesterday. Anyway, he kind of got her scroll number -" Yang blinked and almost interrupted at this development, but Neon only started talking faster, "- and I sort of immediately abused this resource to ask her what your shoe size was because I thought you guys were friends and she'd know what your shoe size was and she did."

Yang scratched her head, running her fingers through her hair where she had been concerned about bleeding. Cool, no blood, all good. "Oh, um, that's cool." She had no idea if it was normal for friends to know each others' shoe sizes or not. She didn't even know Ruby's.

There was a beat, and Yang decided to try and salvage this whole conversation.  
"So, you're taking me roller skating?" she asked, holding up the skates as if Neon would have forgotten them.

Neon shuffled in place, and Yang grinned as she realized that her legs left smaller rainbow streaks every time she did so.  
"Well, I mean, it's more like you're taking me roller skating. I don't really know downtown very well, but, well, I hear this ice cream shoppe-"  
"Pete's?"  
"- yeah Pete's but I haven't found it and I want you to take me."

Another beat, and then Neon pouted, placing her hands on her hips as she shuffled her feet. "And, you know what, normally I would have capitalized on that double entendre but my face honestly hurts and I didn't even wink or anything."

Yang decided to ignore that last comment, instead evaluating the skates, then Neon, then the skates again. "Okay, wow, yeah, that actually sounds great!"  
Yang flipped her hair over her shoulder, then grabbed the skates with her off hand before reaching out, grabbing Neon's hand. The poor girl barely had time to look pleased or shocked before she was suddenly being dragged down the sidewalk.

"Look who's forward now!" Neon called, as if the sudden acceleration suddenly deafened them. Yang started jogging through people, making sure not to swing Neon into any of them.  
"Oh shush; everyone's getting on the ferries and downtown's gonna be flooded! We've got to go fast!"

"If you say so!" Neon replied, but when Yang looked over her shoulder, she was grinning.

There was something about their brutal collision that made things click into place. Yang stopped playing on the defensive and finally got some flirty comments of her own in - like when Neon tried to tease her about them holding hands, and Yang shut her down with a, "So, I wanted to hold hands with a babe - sue me," which got a smirk but no further contest.

They kept it up until they were almost to Pete's, and Yang remembered exactly where it was. Now she remembered why she hadn't gone recently - it was in the square where the Grimm had burst through earlier this semester. There was still a sectioned off area indicating where the train had blown a hole in the city, although all of the infrastructure itself had been repaired that same day.  
Yang got a little quieter when she noticed where they were, and Neon picked up on it just enough to scan the area.

Upon noticing the sectioned off square she asked, "Oh hey! This is where the Grimm attacked, right? I wasn't in Vale so I only heard but . . ." she didn't quite seem to know how to finish the thought.  
Yang shrugged. "Yeah, that's the spot. And you didn't miss much - it only took us like fifteen minutes to kill them all."

"Us as in Vale or . . ." Neon shot Yang a side eye, and Yang met it with a shrug.  
Neon's eyes popped, "No way! You were there?!"

Yang smirked, turning into the doorway of Pete's while an old bell on the door handle let everyone know they were coming. "I, ah, actually, team RWBY was on the train that burst through here. Weiss is the only reason we're not all a red stain on the bottom of the street."

As they rolled up to the counter, Neon's eyes were rapidly becoming in danger of shooting rainbows themselves. When they finally reached the counter and Yang braced herself against it, Neon shoved her futilely. "You didn't tell me you were _awesome_! Why were you even on a train?!"

Yang laughed nervously, not sure how much she should disclose. Plus, the girl at the counter was giving them a weird look thanks to the roller skates, so Yang decided it was best to try and act normal through this sale. It was hard enough just from the fact that the skates made Yang so much taller that she towered over the girl at the counter, and the counter was only at about waist height.  
"Um, a large double fudge please. In a waffle cone. And whatever she wants," she said, tilting her head towards Neon.

Neon shot her another look, but this time instead of looking excited she just looked uncomfortable.  
"You don't have to pay for me, you know. Like, I have money."

Yang hadn't even really thought about that. It was just her automatic assumption that on a date, she would be paying. There had been some guys at Signal who really didn't like that and would insist against it, but Yang hadn't had any trouble paying for girls before.  
"Oh. Yeah. I know that. I just . . ."  
Come to think of it, Yang really didn't know why she just assumed.

Yang shrugged. "I just like it."

Neon's eyebrows shot up in an almost sarcastic appraisal that lingered. Then she simply replied, "Weird kink," before turning her attention back to the girl, who looked deeply uncomfortable to be dealing with these two; "I'll do a medium rainbow sherbet. In a cup. Thanks."

While the girl set about getting them their ice cream, they rolled by the glass case filled with all the different flavors down by where you pay. Neon used a bit of her semblance as she arrived, swiveling around in a rainbow blur before rolling the rest of the way backwards.

"So, train? Adventure? Epic beatdowns in the streets of Vale? Spill."

"Eh, it wasn't really that exciting-" _it totally was_ "- and I'm not really supposed to talk about it -" _true_ "- but basically some people rigged explosives on an abandoned train to lead Grimm into the city. We technically foiled them and got the guy, but team CFVY and some teachers from Beacon were there so we just kinda became like, a foot note."

"So, let me get this straight," Neon said, leaning up against the wall, delicately balancing so that her skates wouldn't shoot out from under her, "you were on a train. Filled with explosives. Being chased by Grimm. When you smashed into the underside of the city. And Weiss Schnee saved your skin."

Yang's eyes scanned the room while she scanned her own brain for a way to qualify that summary. But no. That was pretty much exactly it.  
"Basically, yeah."

The girl came up to the end of the counter, and Yang traded her custody of her credits for the cone. Neon picked her cup up from the counter while the girl worked on issuing change.  
"I seem to have made a mistake," Neon said before pushing off the wall, rolling towards the door. "Schnee is the cool one. I should have asked her out. I wonder if me and Flynt can still trade." The door jingled as she grasped the handle, stopping herself from another untimely collision.

Yang rolled her eyes with a "Pfft," accepted her change with a 'Thank you', and decided that she shouldn't bring up how she got her ass handed to her by a girl Neon's size with a parasol. Then she rolled on after Neon, who held the door open for her.

"Sorry girlfriend," Yang answered properly as the door bell jingled, "I'm nonrefundable."

"I'm okay with that," Neon said with a smile, and offered out her hand.

Despite the fact that they had technically held hands earlier, nervousness immediately sunk into Yang's stomach. "If - if we hold hands, how are you going to eat your ice cream?"

Neon looked down at her cup and spoon. "Okay, quite honestly I didn't think this far ahead, but now I'm committed so . . .?" she tilted her hand up to make it prime hand-holding real estate.  
And Yang just couldn't shoot something that cute down. Her heart softened, and she reached out. "Here, to save you any embarrassment," and they laced their fingers together.

Neon beamed.

As they started off, more slowly than before, along the sidewalk, Neon started up again, "But yeah, that sounds so cool! I wish I could have beaten up a Grimm horde attacking the city like that. Foot note status isn't too bad for a seventeen year old Huntress. Hunter. Hm." Neon's lips pursed. "I'm not sure what to call you."

Yang snorted, but again, she appreciated that Neon even made it a thought. "Let's just . . . stick with Huntress for now. Hunter sounds like the awkward kid in class whose hair is never combed and who's allergic to deodorant." Yang licked her icecream, trying to look thoughtful. "Besides, if the White Fang keeps up like this, a lot of us are going to end up as foot notes."

Neon grinded to a halt, and Yang found herself jerked back. In her effort to stabilize herself, she clenched her hands - the one keeping her attached to Neon was a good idea, but the other only managed to crush her ice cream cone, coating her hands in a freezing chocolate mush.  
"Shit!" Yang cried, referring to only too many things from the last few seconds. "Super strength!"

Neon's voice was flat, flatter than Yang had ever heard her: "It's a waffle cone, I don't think you need super strength. Did you say the White Fang? What do they have to do with . . ." she trailed off, but Yang could see from her eyes that she was working it out.

A long string of curses started to pour through Yang's mind at her clumsiness (physical and verbal), but all Neon said in response to these thoughts was, "Did the White Fang set up the train? Like, this was an attack?"

Yang really wanted to deal with the icy soup all over her hand, but with Neon still holding onto her hand, she didn't have a lot of room to go find a napkin or a bathroom or anything just yet. Neon had only responded to Yang's tightened grip by tightening her own.  
"I . . . um. I don't." Yang's eyes darted around, looking for a way out. She wasn't good at lying. She had never been good at lying. "I mean, it could be? I don't really-"

"Bullshit," Neon replied, and Yang flinched at the harshness. "The White Fang attacked Vale during the festival? Seriously? And we haven't heard about it?"

"I mean, I think they just didn't want people to-"

"To panic?" Neon asked, interrupting Yang. She dropped her hand, looking very thoughtfully down at her sherbet. Her voice quieted down as she said with a hint of disgust, "I guess Vale is just like Atlas, huh?"

And Yang didn't know what to say to that. She wasn't really sure there was anything to say, because as far as she understood, Neon was completely right. She had already said more than she was allowed to - in fact, she had said precisely the thing that she wasn't supposed to by connecting Torchwick and the White Fang. But, for right now, she just needed to fix her ice cream hand.  
"Yeah . . . I mean, I mean I guess. But, um . . . could you get me some napkins."

Neon blinked. And then, "Oh!" She snapped back into her regular self, "Yeah, sure, totally! Wait right here. If you're worried about any of your clothes just take them right off; I'll carry them for you."

"Ha. Ha," Yang replied, but neither of their hearts were in the banter for the moment. The looming doubt embodied by the airships overhead had returned, and now she had the opportunity to share it with a pretty girl. Wonderful.

They were much more quiet when they resumed their skating downtown, though they quickly left the site of the attack in hopes of dashing it from their minds. Chatting about the shops and, more importantly, reviewing their selections and customer service proved to be much more important, especially interspersed with Neon curving in front of Yang while jabbing a spoon of sherbet at her face in hopes that she'd eat it. Finally, though, on the fourth or fifth try, Neon ended up just spattering the goop on Yang's nose, which finally got her to laugh.

"I'm so sorry!" she said, though she was practically cackling. "Your body just can't resist Pete's ice cream."

"Egh," groaned, disgruntled wiping it away with her palm before lapping it up. It couldn't look pretty, but it had to look better than her face being in sherbet. "I'm going to need to take a shower after this. And it's all your fault." She made sure to shoot Neon a bemused glance so she'd know she was playing. With her non-gross hand, she checked her hair and confirmed that yes, despite all the skating, it was still wet.  
"My hair's not even dry yet," she whimpered, knowing full well that it usually took a full day, even spending it outside.

"Couldn't you just, like, do your fire thing to dry off?"  
The question was so innocent, and yet so off the wall that Yang just had to laugh. Neon swiveled around and started to skate backwards in response, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning a little forward. _Show off._

"I don't know about you, but I'm not big into using my aura for stuff like that. Plus, for _some_ reason, I'm down a lot of aura right now." A pointed look at Neon only prompted a mischievous grin. "Besides, most of my aura techniques are based on how I'm feeling. If you'd played a little more fair you probably would have beaten me instead of pissing me off."

"Well, so's my semblance, but I still manage to use it for fun."  
That seemed to give Neon an idea, though, because she stood up straighter and began to decelerate, prompting Yang to follow suit.

"What is it?" Yang asked.  
"I . . . you wanna get your hair dry real fast?"

Now that was a weird question. "What? How?"

As a response, Neon just looked both ways down the street, then dropped down from the sidewalk into it. She skated out into the middle before turning around, offering out a hand to Yang. "Come on," she said.

Yang glanced down the road. "Are you sure that's safe?" she asked. She figured she could take getting hit by a car or whatever, but she wasn't so sure a car could survive a hit from her.

"Does it matter?" Neon asked in reply.

Yang let out a hollow chuckle, but Neon just shuffled back and forth, tiny and cute and jittery and bright-eyed and _oh all right_.

Yang dropped down from the sidewalk and made her way over to Neon, clasping their hands together. The nervousness bubbled back up inside her gut.

"Hold on tight. It's going to feel pretty weird."

Yang nodded her head, and then they began to skate down the street. A perfectly normal speed, then a little fast. Even when they had to make a turn and Yang was a little nervous about the speed, Neon just kept her eyes focused forward, starting sprints that Yang could only keep up with because of her longer legs.  
And then, everything around her vanished as they lurched forward, and her vision was consumed with radiating colors. She knew she was going fast, faster than she ever managed with Ember Celica or Bumblebee, but she couldn't see where she was going - everything was an incoherent prism, beautiful and nonsensical.  
But they didn't hit anything. All Yang could hear was the wind and a rush of noises she couldn't identify, and her own whooping as she ceased to be afraid.

She had no idea they were at the docks until the rainbow suddenly disappeared, and Yang realized she was flying forward. She was decelerating but everything seemed faster now that she could see how the ground disappeared underneath her skates, and the only thing keeping her from spinning out and smashing her face into the ground was Neon's hand. She hit some tiny bump in the road, such a small detail that she never could have noticed, but as she toppled over, as her legs gave out from under her, she was yanked forward. Then she was spinning, around and around, and at first she didn't even realize that Neon was holding her as they spun out. Neon was laughing. This was just easy for her. This was just fun.

As they finally spun to a stop, Yang was able to plant her skates safely again, hold her own weight again. Neon's arm was around her waist, and they were both laughing, light-headed from the speed and the dizziness.

Yang wasn't sure what she said, or what Neon said. She could only remember what she thought.

 _We should kiss_ , she thought, despite the blazing sun and despite the sticky feeling on her hand and nose from all the ice cream.  
 _We should kiss_ , she thought, watching Neon's tail twitch with delight as she laughed.  
 _We should kiss_ , she thought, as they both quieted down and looked at each other, fully aware that they were thinking the same thing.

The moment lingered, and it was warm, and it became stale.

Neon sniffed, as if suddenly becoming aware of where they were. "That's . . . clam chowder. And tuna!"

"Oh, maidens," Yang said, they're embrace breaking so she could put her hands on her hips, "you're just like Blake."

Neon coughed out an awkward laugh, but they both immediately understood how much that was the wrong thing to say. Neon's smile was so, so fake, the warmth in her eyes dying away too fast again.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm really in the mood for seafood though." She shuffled around again, her hands behind her back. It was getting too easy for them to touch. Too easy too fast. "Maybe we should just get like, campus food."

It's not that campus food was bad. It's not like going back to campus meant they had to stop hanging out. But Yang knew, if they did that, the date was over.

Yang shook her head. "Nope. Sorry. Date's not over."  
She reached out a hand again, along with her best attempt at a curtsy in roller skates.

And maybe it wasn't as bright as before, but Neon still smiled. After a second of hesitation, she untangled her hands from behind her back and grabbed Yang's hand again.  
"Where to?" she asked.

When Yang brought Neon to the forest of Forever Fall, she wasn't entirely sure what she intended. Although it was technically filled with the malevolent presence of Grimm, small groups of people were unlikely to be detected without a lot of negativity. Seeing as it was only about two miles from campus and many upperclassmen had vehicles, the cliffs of Forever Fall overlooking the ocean had proven to be a popular date and hookup spot for students of Beacon. Yang thought of it as a change of scenery, as the prettiest place around, but there was so much expectation, so much context to the place, that it was hard not to let her thoughts wander about bringing Neon here.  
She wondered if Neon knew what this place was. She wondered if she knew its reputation. She wondered if she was thinking the same thoughts, too.

They lay side by side near the cliffs, and they could hear the breaking of waves every so often below them. Empty paper bowls sat on either sides of them, remnants of a Forever Fall syrup cereal that a lone man had been selling on the side of the road in. They'd left Bumblebee with him, leaving him with a bit of a grin as they disappeared into the forest.  
It was much cooler here than in Vale, with the slightest ocean breeze and the cool touch of the grass. The red-brown leaves scattered even this far from the treeline, and they smelled sweet like the tree sap, and Yang was worried that her hair would get sticky and gross. It reminded her of the time in elementary school, long before the years at Signal, that a boy had stuck gum in her hair; she cried when she had to cut it, even though it wasn't that much.

Neon had pulled her hair free of its ties, seemingly unafraid of the mess it would become as it spilled out, red as the leaves on the grass. Neon lay on her side, and her hair was poofy and wild, much too wide for how it was long. It looked silly. Yang wanted to touch it, but she still didn't want to be 'that guy'.

"So, I guess the White Fang's a big thing here too, huh?" Neon's eyes were big and empty, without the disdain or anxiety from the first time they'd been brought up.

Yang lay with her head in her hands, fingers laced together into a pillow. "I mean, yeah. Aren't they kinda big everywhere?"

Neon did her best to shrug, despite being on her side. "I didn't think they were anything here like they are in Atlas. I never thought things could be worse here."

"It didn't used to be like this," Yang replied, but she didn't know that. Things had been bad ever since she started at Beacon. They'd seemed bad before. Maybe she had only been too much of a child to see how bad things were between faunis and humans before.  
"I . . . I've heard things are really bad in Atlas," she continued. While she'd certainly heard that, she'd never known any of the details until Weiss and Blake got into an argument about the Schnee Dust company. Mention of the company, even in connection to the White Fang, had been a forbidden topic for months now. "Attacks on businesses, political assassinations, jailing of suspected White Fang members. I can't even imagine."

"I don't know," Neon said, turning to lay on her back now. "I guess you just try not to think about it."

"I don't get that. Isn't it scary?"

"Oh, it's scary. People just don't want to admit how scared they are, like that makes it real. But they're so scared they'll do . . . they'll do some pretty messed up stuff to feel safe." Her voice was a little shaky when she said that. She gave a hollow laugh after it, but the words themselves had felt heavy. They sounded scared. Yang hadn't heard it before.

Now it was Yang's turn to turn on her side. She got her first clear look at Neon's profile, the red and pink too messy to quite frame her face. Her nose was so pointed and her lips were so small, and Yang wanted to pet her. She wondered if that would be soothing. She didn't want to ask. She'd gotten far too close to asking Blake when things had been getting rough, but she knew it was stupid.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked.

Yang watched the tiny saccades of Neon's eyes as she thought, lips still pursed as she swallowed deeply. A few seconds later, she asked lightly, as if changing topic, "You remember what I said about elevators?"

Yang wracked her brain for a few seconds before remembering when it had come up; "Oh, that they're tiny death boxes?"

"Yeah," Neon replied.  
At first, Yang thought that that was it, but then Neon continued, "And you know that guy I beat up when I got my semblance?"

Yang just nodded in reply, but she could tell Neon could see it.  
What she didn't expect was the way that Neon's eyes widened and refused to blink. It was a familiar look, like when Ruby talked about her mom.

Yang felt her gut clench, but not out of nervousness, out of concern.

"Yeah, so, um. Like, this one time, he and a bunch of guys kinda . . . ambushed me."  
Yang rolled a little more, now onto her stomach, but she stayed quiet, her eyes trained on Neon's own that refused to blink.

"I don't really know what was up with them, exactly, but they were pissed, and they didn't hurt me but they locked me in one of the lockers. You know, like the rocket ones you guys have here. And I thought they were just going to launch me somewhere - people do that sometimes, I mean, like, as a prank - but they just left me in there."  
Neon's fingers dug into her own clothes, looking for something to grasp but there was nothing solid enough. Yang reached out and grabbed one of them, squeezing as hard as she could.  
Neon squeezed back, acknowledging that Yang was there, took a deep breath, and continued.

"I thought they would just leave, but they stuck around for a while. One of the guys made sure nobody came in but the rest stayed. They said that I didn't belong at that school, that I was part of the White Fang. They asked me if I was happy about this train that had been attacked that had been in the news - some White Fang thing where a bunch of people were injured or killed. And I told them no, like of course I wasn't happy - people died - but there was this fucking guy, I didn't even know him, he kept saying that I liked it. That I liked that humans were dead."

Yang wasn't sure what to say. What she should say, or what she could say.  
She said, "And you've been claustrophobic ever since?"

Neon's eyes finally slid over, though they still weren't blinking very much, as if she just remembered that Yang was there. The way she held Yang's hand let her know she hadn't forgotten at any point, though.  
Neon said, "I mean, I guess? I just meant, like . . . people get so scared. I would have been scared with them - it's not like faunis didn't die on that train, too. But they just . . ."

And whatever words Neon was trying to say curdled in her mouth, and she choked on them. Her skin flushed redder with fury, or shame, or something, but it was warm and toxic and she squeezed Yang's hand as tightly as she could.

Yang thought she might know what those words were. "They caged you like an animal."

And Neon blinked once, twice, breathing deeply. Her teeth were gritted together so that her breath became a teeth-baring smile, barely letting out a "Yeah."

Neon didn't cry. Yang would have felt better if she cried, but instead her eyes just just flickered about, as if she were still back then instead if here, now with Yang.  
Yang sat up, scooting herself next to Neon before dragging her into her lap. Neon complied as well as she could, lifting herself and sitting down, letting herself be enveloped in Yang's arms, gripping the sides of her jacket. And Yang combed her fingers through Neon's hair, hoping that it would comfort her.

"I'm sorry."  
"It's not your fault."  
"But people are hateful, and I'm sorry."  
"I'm sorry, too."

 _Why does she trust me?_ Yang wondered. The days where Ruby let her pain show through, where she let Yang hold her, those days had passed. And yet here was this honest stranger in shambles.

"Yang?" Neon asked, after a long pause.  
"Yeah?"  
"I still wanna know about your semblance."

And Yang gave a snort in response. "How about just one of us breaks down at a time, okay?"

A beat, and then, "Okay, that's fair."

"Someday," Yang said, "I promise."


	3. Say Goodbye (to the things we loved)

"Think about it; I'm in no rush."

Qrow gave a two-fingered wave from his temple as he walked through the door of Yang's dorm and closed it behind him.

Yang had no idea what she was supposed to be feeling right now. Her mom had never been closer, more present than she felt right now, not since she left her and Dad so many years ago. Only a few weeks ago, she would have taken Bumblebee and been gone tonight. But now, with Raven's message delivered and Yang's relationship with Beacon already feeling so precarious, ambivalence consumed her. On one hand, she had never had this opportunity, and with every hour that passes, Qrow's tip on how to find her becomes less likely to pan out. On the other, she had no guarantees, even if she found her, that her mother would speak to her, that she'd have a home to come back to, that she would be proud of who Yang had become. She clearly loved Yang with some type of love - a love that felt alien and cold to Yang, maybe, but love nonetheless. But could that ever become the thing Yang was looking for?

Thoughts of Raven brought stinging embers over Yang's skin. Thoughts of her rarely failed to burn themselves out, eating away at her aura like molten candle wax. If she had had any aura to spare, she may have sat there for hours ruminating, but she was already depleted. She needed rest. She needed a nap. And she needed, absolutely needed to _not_ do is think about how much it hurt that Blake had doubted her when even Weiss hadn't, or how tenuous their trust now was.

She was asleep for such a short time she didn't think she'd fallen asleep at all. She blinked awake to the buzzing of her scroll beneath her pillow.

 **Neon =^.^=:** how are you doing?

 **Yang:** Shitty.

 **Neon =^.^=:** were you disqualified?

 **Yang:** Yes.

 **Neon =^.^=:** damn. i'm sorry

 _Whatever._ Yang wasn't in the mood to talk through things with yet another person. She knew that Neon was trying to be kind, to not make Yang out to be a monster like the media had been so quick to do, perhaps even give her the benefit of the doubt about her intentions. But if she had to feel her own feelings for a minute more, she was just going to melt like that wax, unable to hold herself together anymore.

Yang just stuffed her scroll back underneath her pillow.

A minute later, Neon texted again anyway.

 **Neon =^.^=:** could you use some company?

That's exactly what Yang didn't want.

 **Neon =^.^=:** we don't have to talk about the match or anything. just... company

 **Yang:** Company?

 **Neon =^.^=:** there's bad feelings in the air. I can feel them like a Grim, kinda, or i guess just like a person  
And I know something that helps is being near someone  
I don't know if you have someone with you, like blake or weiss, but  
 **Neon =^.^=:** like i could just be there with you for a while Neon was trying so hard. Yang couldn't fathom why she cared, why she'd bother checking in after watching her shoot Mercury's legs like that. But it softened her heart, just a little.

 **Yang:** OK  
 **Yang:** but honestly, all I want to do is lie in bed and pretend nothing is happening. Can you deal with that?

 **Neon =^.^=:** i think so  
 **Neon =^.^=:** wait like cuddling? or do i just sort of chill out nearby

 **Yang:** I would be OK with being a little spoon if you're up to it.

 **Neon =^.^=:** i am  
 **Neon =^.^=:** what's your dorm #?

* * *

It had been initially awkward, what with Neon showing up, glancing inside, asking, "No one else here, huh?", Yang feeling like she'd arranged a booty call, and them awkwardly configuring themselves on the bed. Now it was mostly nice with a large side-order of strange, both because Neon's body felt so unfamiliar and because Neon was a good head shorter that Yang. Her version of big spooning relied a lot on having her legs fit closely behind Yang's, but she couldn't get her head near Yang's in that case, instead setting her head against the back of Yang's shoulder.

They lay there for a long, quiet moment, probably close to half an hour. Yang easily could have fallen asleep (much to Neon's credit, considering how nerve-wracking it was to share her bunk - especially when the others would return as soon as Pyrrha's match was over), but some part of Yang couldn't ignore that this might be the last and only time she had to spend with Neon alone like this. Everything with her had been a blur - fun and exciting and charged and more emotionally intimate than she'd anticipated. Nevermind the whole mess of feelings she'd been having about Neon's quick perception of her ambivalence - ambivalence about her gender on one hand, and ambivalence about her feelings for Blake on the other. The fact that Neon saw what Yang felt, what she'd been feeling and been unable to say herself, made her so much more confident that it was all real. And if Yang didn't hold onto these feelings, these certainties, they would slip between her fingers. Just like these last hours with Neon.

Neon's arm hung loosely around Yang's side, neatly dodging her bare midriff. Despite all her forwardness, she was doing her best to not seem like a creep, especially right now. That was appreciated.

"I'm sorry," Yang said, "If this isn't what you had in mind when you asked me out."

"It's not," Neon confirmed. Her thumb stroked along the bottom of Yang's chest as she spoke. "But I wouldn't trade this, either."

Yang said, "You know, I don't really know what I was looking for when I took you out. Like, I wasn't trying to hook up with you, or date you, really. But I also wasn't really trying to become friends with you like I normally do. I think . . ." she trailed off for a moment, thinking. "I think I wanted to learn how to be more like you, maybe."

"Oh?" Neon asked, clearly flattered. "You wanted to be super pretty, but like, kind of a bitch?"

"Nooo," Yang groaned, much to Neon's giggling delight. She flipped around and propped herself up on her arm so they could actually look at each other. "Like . . . like, in our fight, you picked out how easily I get frustrated when things get hard. And how I kinda . . . just . . ."

"Punch until there's no more problem?" Neon offered.

Yang shrugged. "I mean, yeah? It's like you said, it's such a big part of me that it's my semblance. But you seem just like the opposite. Like you don't get bogged down in anything."

Neon offered a small smile, encouraged that Yang was finally talking. She reached up and pushed some of the hair in Yang's face back - there's no point in trying to tuck it behind her ear, but Yang recognized the gesture.

"It's how I know how to survive, I guess," Neon says. "Don't let anything stop me. Don't let anyone keep me down. Never miss a beat, and no one can find your flaws. Being a girl, being a faunus, being queer . . . it doesn't leave a lot of room for error. And when I make one, if I let _that_ stop me, I'll only make more."

That whole framing was nonsensical to Yang. When there were problems she couldn't punch her way through, there was no such thing as 'not letting that stop me.' Being disqualified from the tournament, hurting Mercury (even if he deserved it, even if he had tried to attack her), Raven being gone and untraceable all these years - these weren't things you could just move past.

"I . . . I don't get that at all," Yang said, dropping back onto her back (Neon had to scoot back a little). She hummed for a second, thinking, then said, "You know, we found out my semblance when I was really young. Like . . . I started training when I was six, after some Grim nearly got me in the woods outside of Patch."

Neon was doing a poor job of hiding her rapt interest in this topic, but Yang was finally past caring about how weird it was that Neon was so interested in her.

"It was a few months after we unlocked my aura. My uncle, Qrow, he was helping teach me. And one night, he gets drunk, and he starts talking about his sister, my Mom. What she used to be like at Beacon. What a brat she was on missions . . . stuff like that. And for the first time she left, I didn't just miss her. I realized that she left me and Dad because she wanted to. When I heard how she used to treat Qrow, and my Dad, and Summer, I realized that she just abandoned us because she didn't care. And that just made me so mad. Like, Summer left because there were people who needed protecting, but Mom just _left_. And my aura . . . just sort of burst. I broke our porch, shattered the windows. I felt like my skin was on fire . . ."

Yang held a hand up to see it better in the light. Her aura wasn't burning now, but she remembered exactly what it was like that day, how freaked out Uncle Qrow was until he realized what happened, how sad Dad looked when he figured out what revealed her semblance.

"A lot of people who fight me, and my teammates, even - they think my semblance is all about rage. And that's part of it, yeah . . . but when I need to set it off, I don't think about losing. I just think about Mom. It's not the anger that makes me strong. It's the pain, inviting in again and again. I can take more every time." Yang rolled her hand over, remembering the giant mech Torchwick hit her with. And how she had just hit back. "But I can't move past it. If I did, I'd just be . . . empty."

Neon lifted her hands up and shrugged slowly. "I'm not going to say my way is right, Yang. I'm not you. But you're somebody whose feelings become much more than feelings . . ." Neon reached out a hand and lay it over Yang's. She squeezed tight. "And I think there might be other ways for you to be strong."

"Maybe," Yang said through a brief, fake smile. "Maybe one day I'll find another way, like you. Or, something . . ."

"And Yang?" Neon asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for telling me."

The smile was more real this time: "I told you, I can adapt to high-speed friendship."

"And you've done so beautifully," Neon said, planting a quick kiss on Yang's cheek. "Queer kids. Talking about childhood trauma is basically second base."

Now it was Yang's turn to quirk her eyebrows curiously. "Is that so?"

Neon nodded. "I speak from experience."

Yang said, "I think that means we missed first base."

Neon looked confused. "There isn't really a queer first b- oh."

Realization struck Neon once Yang lifted her hand, imitating the same brushing-hair-back move Neon had done to her, and Yang did her absolute best to make The Face. She hesitated for only a second, then rolled over, sliding one leg up between Yang's thighs as she pulled herself closer, and they kissed. It was warm and soft. Yang had never kissed anyone else as anything other than a girl (even if being with boys, she felt like so much more of a boy than she did with Neon), but Neon was the first person to make her want to be a girl, to not have her defenses up as she felt another person on top of her.

Yang was more eager than she'd expected though, and when Neon broke their kiss, Yang grabbed her hips and pulled her back close, fingers tracing her sides. She did her best not to giggle once Neon's tail began to swish happily back and forth, tickling her a little.

Eventually, Neon sat up, straddling Yang's leg, panting quietly. "I wasn't expecting that, she said."

Yang shrugged. "I just wanted to smooch a babe, y'know. Sue me."

Neon slipped back into her higher, sarcastic voice, "Oh my god, what a coincidence - me too! Do you know where I could find one, I was just looking for-"

"Oh, shut up," Yang said, and Neon immediately cut off to kiss her again.

After kissing a little longer, Yang felt flushed, finally distracted, and more than a little turned on. She asked, "Is there . . . anything else you were hoping to accomplish when you asked me out?"

It was bait, and it was obvious bait, but what Yang did not expect was for Neon to blush, quickly descending into genuine embarrassment. "Um . . . actually . . . yeah."

Yang had been expecting she'd get seduced after that, but Neon looked like she had other ideas. "Such as?"

Neon bit her lip, which was honestly just adorable. After a moment more of hesitation, she pressed her hands together as if in prayer and said, "I'd actually really like to brush your hair. Like. If you'd like that."

Neon was, underneath it all, actually kind of a cute dork. Yang wasn't sure if it was the kiss, or the invitation, or if she'd just been thinking about this the whole time, but the veer into hair brushing was hilarious, and she couldn't help but laugh. That only made Neon redder, but she just stuck her tongue out at Yang for her rude response.

When Yang settled down a little, she smiled and said, "You know what, though? I'd love that."

Yang looked off the side of the bed - "I think I've got a brush down-"

"I BROUGHT ONE!" Neon exclaimed, rolling off of Yang and catching herself on the ground. She went straight for her backpack and pulled out large red hairbrush with bits of Neon's dyed hair tangled along the bottom.

Yang just blinked. "You . . . brought your own?"

"Look, your hair is like, really pretty. And a _lot_ of faunus have grooming instincts so you can't even pretend it's that wei-"

Yang waved Neon's excuse away before she could even finished, giving a good-natured grin as she sat up. "No, Neon, you're adorable. And I'm flattered." She bunched her hair up behind her back as she turned around, laying back down on her stomach.

Neon straddled Yang's back, laying the brush down on the bunk. She asked, "Is this comfortable?" softly, in that voice Yang hadn't known existed until last night. Yang nodded, then felt Neon's fingers along the edges of her scalp, trying to get all of her hair going the same way. Once she was satisfied with her work there, she dragged her fingers through the last few inches of Yang's hair, carefully undoing the tangles along the ends. Once the worst of them were out, she brushed the ends until they were nearly straight. It had always annoyed Yang that she could get into an honest-to-god fist fight with Grimm without pain, but brushing her hair always ended up tearing some out painfully. She tried to keep a straight face for Neon anyway.

Finally, once Neon had gotten through the prep work, she brought her brush up to the middle of Yang's hair and started to brush more slowly. It still caught occasionally, but once Neon ran through a section with her brush, she'd run her fingers through Yang's hair, gently, until there were no more tangles. Then she'd keep stroking anyway, petting sometimes accompanied by her nails dragging along Yang's back (though usually over her shirt).

As Neon was slowly working her way up through all of her hair, Yang relaxed again. Maybe not sleepily like before (the feeling of Neon on top of her didn't really give her 'sleepy' feelings), but still, the process was soothing. There had been no one who would just sit and brush her hair like this in so long . . . not since Summer died. At another time, those soothing memories might have been another breakdown about another lost mother, but right now, Neon felt too present for Yang to slip back into the past like that.

"You know . . . ever since the first night we went out, I've really wanted to play with your hair . . ." Yang said quietly. "I just . . . didn't want to be creepy."

"That's appreciated." Neon stopped brushing for a second, leaning down to whisper just behind Yang's ear, "But I'd be down if you wanted to play with my hair when I'm done with you."

Yang shivered in anticipation of something that was almost certainly just her imagination while Neon went back to brushing her hair.

Neon kept brushing until she could run her fingers smoothly through all of Yang's hair, then took a few minutes, delighted, to just pet her. "It's so pretty, how it catches the light," she'd say, or "How do you keep it so soft?" - but these didn't demand any sort of response. Yang loved her hair. She put a lot of time into it. People were quick to pick up on that, and quick to be creeps about it. But in a safer context, having someone admire it so much, and touch her so softly . . . it was nice. It was very nice.

Eventually, Yang said, "It's your turn."

Neon cleared some of the hair away from Yang's face, kissed her cheek, and said, "Okay."

Neon climbed off her while Yang sat up, running her own fingers through her hair. It felt so much softer when someone gave it serious attention. Yang hadn't found the time for it in years.

It took Neon quite a while to get all of the clips and hair ties out of her hair, but when it was finally down . . . it was kind of hilarious. Neon's hair was long, for sure, about as long as Blake's, but it had more volume than Yang was sure she'd ever seen. It was a lot frizzier without all of the tension in it, and it just sort of ballooned out half a foot behind her neck. It was every bit as floofy as Yang had dreamed and more.

"Oh my . . . your cool vibes just vanish right into thin hair, don't they?"

Neon glared.

Yang continued, "For real, you're adorable, you're in a league of hair own. You're a cut above the rest."

Neon put her hands on her hips and said, "I'll put it back right now if you keep making all these hair puns. I'm absolutely a-paw-lled at your behavior."

Yang pouted. "But - but Neon! I'm hair-larious."

Yang's face froze in utter delight while Neon's eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Neon said, "Alright, the hair's going away, privileges revo-"

But Yang pounced as Neon raised her hands to bunch up her hair, taking advantage of her exposed belly to start tickling her sides, which made her absolutely jump. "No - no I'm so ticklish you can't -" but by then she was already doubled over, and words just gave way to frantic giggling.

"Nooo, let me brush your haaiiirr," Yang whined, until finally Neon caught her wrists and made her stop.

"OKAY you JERK!" Neon complained. She sat up, placed her hands on Yang's cheeks, and pecked her on the lips before turning and falling back down on the bed.

Neon's hair was a lot harder to work with than the few girls whose hair Yang had done before, but she started with the same approach, getting the ends straighter and smooth, working out the knots. Unlike her own hair, though, Neon's didn't really sit down better when it was straighter - the poof was insurmountable. Yang couldn't wait to run her fingers through it . . . but patience.

"Do you have any more claw-some cat puns?" Yang asked, keeping a normal speaking voice, absolutely avoiding the sultry bullshit Neon had pulled on her.

"Hmm," she hummed, "Not really. I'm such a terrible pro-cat-stinator, I never follow through on making one." She paused for a second, then asked, "What's Blake's favorite cat pun, then?"

Yang shook her head. For once, she didn't feel weird talking about Blake - the tension between her and Neon felt so much easier to manage now, since they kissed. "Oh, Blake doesn't hold a very paw-sitive cattitude about cat puns. Or puns at all."

"Oh? Then this must be a very special mew-ment for you."

Yang snorted, swiping hair away from Neon's face to look at her more closely. "Mew-ment? That's so cute." And she pressed a kiss against Neon's cheek, leaving a smirk on Neon face when she sat back up. As she started brushing again, she added more softly, "Also . . . it kind of is."

They both smiled softly, but let the conversation die into near-silence while Yang slowly brushed Neon's hair. It took a long time (and a lot of loose hair thrown into the garbage) before Yang was able to draw the brush from Neon's scalp down to the tips, but no sooner had she done so then she let her fingers gingerly settle on the back of Neon's head, running them smoothly down the length of her hair.

After a few more minutes of brushing Neon's hair out, of soft petting and small kisses in her hair, Neon finally said, "Y'know . . . I'm . . . sad this is ending so soon."

Yang kept brushing. After a delay, she nodded and said, "Yeah . . . me too." She hummed to herself for a moment, then said, "But, you know, you have my Scroll, we can keep in touch . . . and there's another festival in two years."

Neon nodded back. "Mhm. And, like, as soon as it isn't a literal crime, I'll send you so many nudes. But like, exclusively in class so it's really inconvenient."

"Oh yeah?"

"Mmmhmm," Neon replied with a self-satisfied smirk.

A few quiet minutes passed, and Yang watched as worry grew on Neon's face. Then, worry twisted into sadness, and Neon became more and more unresponsive to Yang's touches.

Finally, Yang asked, "What's wrong?"

"I just-" Neon started, but immediately cut off, as if struggling to get the words out. She suddenly looked like she was about to cry. "I just get this terrible feeling that this is the end of . . . this." Neon rolled over, looking up at Yang's face. "I feel like I'm never going to see you again - and that . . . that kinda sucks, you know?"

"Hey . . . hey," Yang cooed, although Neon's fear was quick to seep into Yang as well. She leaned down, and Neon wrapped her arms around Yang, and they held each other tightly. "We've still got a week . . . and even then, you'll see me again, I promise."

Even if she didn't believe it was true, Neon's fears for the future made Yang feel more sick than she felt was reasonable. She was going to miss Neon. There was some possibility here that would, almost certainly, never be realized. She was just doing her best to deny it while she still could.

* * *

Once Neon had checked the time and realized that the later rounds were starting, she put her hair up, while Yang just sat and admired the precision she had with her hair. She was just finishing the touch-ups on her makeup as well when she paused and said, "Something is wrong . . ."

Yang looked over from where she was sitting on the bunk and tilted her head. "Why, what's up?"

Neon turned around, and Yang realized she'd misjudged the severity of Neon's words - her eyes were wide with fear, and she was trembling. Unlike her flashbacks, though, she was looking around the room, looking for something. She said, "I think . . . I think my team is in trouble." She finally looked at Yang and said, "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"Oh - oh, shit, okay, if you give me a second, I can-"

Neon shook her head. "No, like, I have to go right now." As soon as Neon had her shoes on, she opened the door and waved, "See you, Yang."

"See you late-" but Neon had already closed the door behind herself, and an instant later Yang could hear the rush that came with Neon's semblance.

It took Yang a few seconds to pull herself out of a daze and think. Then, _If team FNKI is in trouble . . . something could be going on at the stadium._

Yang pulled out her scroll and just typed in 'Vytal festival news.' She found a livestream and tapped it.

 _"-This was not an accident._

 _This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children to men who claim to be our guardians."_

The stream showed a wide frame of the stadium. In the center was one fighter, who looked like Pyrrha. There was something else on the stage, but Yang couldn't see what it was clearly. Rubble from the previous match, maybe?

 _"But are, in reality, nothing more than men._

 _Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both._

 _They cling to this power in the name of peace-"_

Who in the hell was talking? She sounded so familiar. She definitely wasn't one of the typical announcers - she spoke more slowly, so . . . sinister. What was going on? Why was Pyrrha just standing there?

 _"And yet, what do we have here?:_

 _One nation's attempt at a synthetic army - mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil."_

The camera switched to the other side, and much closer. And that camera zoomed in, closer and closer, until Yang could finally make out what the debris on the stage was.

Her clattered harmlessly to the floor, while the woman on the stream kept talking.

 _"What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl?"_

"Penny . . . ?"

It was just a flicker now, but Yang could feel her skin burning, melting away like molten wax.

And that was the last time she would see Neon for a long, long time.


End file.
